17 Then Jesus answered and said, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to Me.” 18 And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour.
19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” 20 So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. 21 However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”
When the disciples asked why they couldn't heal the boy, Jesus rebukes them. Also, like the time when Peter tried to walk on water! There are things they should have been able to do "by now!"
A mustard seed is smaller than a poppy seed, it is one-sixteenth of an inch in diameter. If my faith was at least "one-sixteenth of an inch in diameter," then i can move mountains and heal the sick... so, exactly how small is my faith?
These passages made me think of what blessings i forfeit because of my unbelief/lack of faith... what kinds of thing should I be able to do "by now!"
3 comments:
Helen! That's pretty small. Thanks for your reflection. It gives me something to think and reflect on today.
Thank you!
Today passage is really challenging for me!
thanks for your reflection, helen. i was thinking about the nature of the demon that was in the boy, a demon so powerful and destructive that it would literally throw the boy into fire and water, looking to destroy him. it made me think of people we know in our lives with so great an unbelief--the "demon" within them is not so obvious as to throw them into fire and water, but they have addictive, compulsive, cynical personalities that are equally destructive in their own, quieter way. sometimes we despair that they will ever be cured.
Jesus says that "this kind can only come out by fasting and prayer". there are some forms of unbelief and "possession" so powerful that they can only be cured by a "special" intervention. if we've ever wondered if such "demons can be cast out", well, Jesus has shown us the way. it is seldom done in our day, probably because so few of us have the faith to "pray and fast" and see it through to the very end.
how much faith do we really need? Jesus says a faith as big as a mustard seed. i used to wonder what this meant until i realized it's not so much the amount of faith we have as the OBJECT of our faith. when we come to understand the power of Jesus, i think faith as big as a mustard seed is probably more than enough to accomplish anything we ask, including the moving of a mountain.
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